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Somehow, I hadn’t been surprised to find a female in the driver’s seat, though that was unfair. My best friend’s teenage daughter, Millie, would say I was being sexist and that plenty of men caused accidents, but she wasn’t here to correct me. I smiled softly and went back to cleaning up the mess I’d made from cleaning her wounds, then left the room and turned off the light.
I’d watched the news earlier and knew the current storm was going to get worse and last for a few days, dumping well over two feet of snow and who knew how much ice. I had hoped that in the morning, the storm would blow over, so I could drive her to the local town two hours away.
From the looks of her car, I would have to take her to the local town a couple of hours away because her car was destined for a junkyard from the looks of it.
Toeing off my hiking boots, I hung up the coat I’d dumped on the floor in my hurry to get supplies. I went back to the kitchen to check the lasagna and garlic bread I had in the oven, then returned to my recliner in front of the fire.
Itching to move and my mind fueled with adrenaline, I got up, went to the fridge, grabbed a beer, and went back to the wooden stool on the other side of the island that was shiny from being used the most.
Lately, a few things had gone wrong with the family business, a business I’d inherited far too young but had taken on when the time came. This place was supposed to be my shelter from the storm, a place where I could hide out from those who sought me out, who wanted me… dead.
A heavy weight settled over my shoulders, and I propped my elbows on the kitchen top of the island so I could rest my head on my fists.
“Brick,” I thought I heard someone say and looked up from my study of the island top.
I sat up straight as seconds ticked by, looking toward the hall to the room I’d settled the woman into. Had she been calling me? I shook my head with a frown. She didn’t know my name. I was alone.
My mother came to mind, as it did when I let my thoughts wander. The voice sounded as if it could have been her. I shook my head, realizing I’d imagined someone calling out for me. I’d been alone the whole time, so there wasn’t possibly anyone else here.
Getting to my feet, I slowly moved to the edge of the island, my beer in hand. I sauntered into the living room, checking out the windows for signs of anyone lurking in the darkness.
A slight pang of unease settled in my chest. Was there more than a distraught woman on my property tonight? Maybe that unease was the intuition I’d developed since I took over the family business, an intuition that told me when there was danger near. Had someone else come to pay me a visit? Maybe with a bullet to put in my head?
I waited, but nothing else disturbed me, and I saw no movements outside. Maybe the woman in the bedroom had moved, her leg sweeping across the sheets, whispering a sound that might have sounded like my name. Or it could have been the wind outside, lashing snow against the logs of the cabin. I went back to the kitchen to check the windows there but saw nothing more than heavy snow blowing down from the sky.
Shaking my head, I tipped my beer to my mouth, took a long drink, and left the kitchen, moving toward the hall. I’d left the woman’s door cracked open and stepped carefully as I made my way down the hall, although the sound of my footsteps was muted by the thick rugs left over from my grandmother’s generation. She may have even made the rugs, for all I knew. My father once told me about how his mother had been very creative and loved making things for the house.
Peering through the crack into the spare room, I found the woman illuminated by the light from the hall. Her eyes were closed, her head nestled against the ice pack to the left of her head, her right hand against her cheek. She looked like a Gaelic angel with the covers still tucked around her body. She hadn’t spoken; she was dead to the world.
Returning to the kitchen, I took out the lasagna and devoured most of it with some garlic bread. I left a portion for the woman should she wake up during the night.
I wasn’t a bad cook, if I said so myself. My mother taught me when I was a kid, and once she passed, I trusted no one else to cook for me. People were too susceptible to money for me to feel comfortable eating food I hadn’t cooked myself.
It occurred to me that she might have loved ones who were worried about her, but I wasn’t going back out into the howling wind to dig around in a car that had basically been turned upside down. I’d let her find it tomorrow. Besides, a glance at my phone told me the signal was gone, anyway. It was usually strong on top of the mountain, but during a storm, the signal would cut out, especially if the power went down in the town below. The tower would have no signal to send out without power.
I checked on the woman every fifteen minutes throughout the evening until I went to bed at midnight. By that point, over a foot of snow had already fallen. If it kept up at that pace, there would be over three feet of snow by morning, if not more.
That unease returned as a reminder that I might lose my window of opportunity to take the woman into town in the morning and as far from me as possible. Grinding my jaw, I exhaled loudly.
I had to wait until morning to assess the situation.
Changing into thick black pajama pants and a t-shirt, I put on socks to keep my feet warm before I got into bed. I left my door open in case the woman woke up in the night. The wood burner was stocked up and would keep the cabin warm all night, so there wasn’t much more I could do.
Socialising wasn’t my thing, which was why I enjoyed my time here alone in the cabin.
As I dozed off, I couldn’t get the woman off my mind.
Was she really an innocent driver, or was she someone who wanted me dead? The man who wanted me dead wasn’t the kind of man who would drive all the way up here in the middle of a blizzard just to finish me off. By her fear and accident, I doubted she’d be someone he’d hire, but I’d keep an eye on her since one could never be too sure. If she was innocent, I’d have to find a way to get her away and out of harm’s way as soon as possible.
Chapter3
Amelia
Consciousness came with pain digging into my right shoulder, more around my hips, and a dull, thudding ache in my forehead. Then there was the stinging pain on the left side of my head. I moved my hand up to my forehead and found a knot. There was another that felt scabby on the left side of my head.
Did I get run over by a truck last night?
My last memory had been the deer in the middle of the road, swerving and running into a tree. After that, my thoughts were kind of blurry.
